1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a medical treatment procedure. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a non-invasive method for treating postural instability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Falls represent a serious medical problem in the United States. As one example, consider that some 250,000 individuals fall each year fracturing their hip. This generally results in total hip arthroplasty or hip replacement surgery at a significant cost. Health care costs in this area range in the billions of dollars per year in the United States alone. Further, the morbidity associated with hip fractures is extensive. Half of all individual who undergo total hip arthroplasty will not achieve their previous level of motility and will require assistance to walk. Moreover, for patients over 70, more than one-half will die within 12 months of a hip fracture due to complications associated with the surgery or extended bed rest following surgery. Other consequences as a result of falling include lost wages, lost productivity, upper extremity injuries, head injuries, fear of falling leading to decreased physical activity, etc.
The primary cause of falling is loss of balance, and the inability to re-achieve balance once it is lost, concepts referred to as postural instability or imbalance. Postural instability is closely tied to the status of the neuro-muscular system, though a thorough understanding of the factors that lead to, or detract from, postural stability has yet to be established.
To prevent individuals from falling and injuring themselves due to postural instability, a method is needed for treating postural instability or imbalance.
The present disclosure describes a method for treating postural instability following a determination that a patient is experiencing postural instability. Postural instability, due, for example, by the onset of senile sarcopenia, is determined by measuring non-invasively, the vibrational characteristics of the musculoskeletal system and analyzing the same, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,975 B1, granted to McLeod et al., entitled Non-Invasive Method of Physiologic Vibration Quantification, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In particular, the present disclosure relates to a non-invasive method for treating a patient experiencing postural instability including the steps of (a) providing a vibration table having a non-rigidly supported platform; (b) permitting the patient to rest on the non-rigidly supported platform for a predetermined period of time; and (c) repeating the steps (a) and (b) over a predetermined treatment duration. Step (b) includes the steps of (b1) measuring a vibrational response of the patient""s musculoskeletal system using a vibration measurement device; (b2) performing a frequency decomposition of the vibrational response to quantify the vibrational response into specific vibrational spectra; and (b3) analyzing the vibrational spectra to evaluate at least postural stability. Preferably, the predetermined period of time is approximately 10 minutes and the predetermined treatment duration is at least four weeks.